Even assuming that there really was no way to shut down the transmitter Marr used to destroy the crystalline entity, why did Picard not simply warp away from the creature? Also, if the crystalline entity destroys planets in a matter of hours as shown here, how come the children of Data's colony had time to draw pictures of it?

Great Moment :

The entity wiping out the colony planet.

Body Count :

Carmen and one other colonist on the planet, the crew of the transport ship, and the entity itself.

Factoid :

One of the meanings of word "avatar" is "a repository of knowledge" - the term "silicon avatar" referred to Data.

Plotline

The Enterprise-D encounters the being responsible for destroying Data's home planet once again.